Toll 4th-quarter revenue off 41%; firm can't estimate profit

RobertDaniel

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Toll Brothers Inc.,
TOL, +1.03%
the Horsham, Pa., home builder, reported fourth-quarter home-building revenue fell 41% from a year earlier and said it couldn't estimate fiscal 2009 profit because of uncertainty about housing-market and other economic trends. For the quarter ended Oct. 31, revenue totaled $691 million. Backlog fell 54% to $1.33 billion; in units, the backlog fell 48% to 2,046. Signed contracts in the quarter totaled 539 valued at $266.7 million, off 18% in units and 27% in dollars. The company had $1.63 billion of cash at Oct. 31, compared with $1.5 billion a year earlier. The "preliminary signs of stability" Toll had seen in early September "were upended by the past month's financial crisis," Robert I. Toll, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. The company expects to report fourth-quarter write-downs of $120 million to $220 million tied to its communities, land and land options, and joint ventures.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.